Your Pocket of Ecosystem

Georgia is a state rich in botanical species and overall biodiversity (plants, birds, insects). It helps that the state is large in size, but our state also has a variety of rivers, streams, landforms, and soil fertility. These all help to contribute to the presence of so many different plant species. This variety of plant species in turn contributes to the diversity of birds and insects that we have, and they all live together in our local ecosystem.

Sourwood in the mountains but natural at my house too

Each of us that have responsibility for a bit of land – from 1/10 of an acre to hundreds of acres – care for a piece of Georgia’s ecosystem. What we do with it matters. A key part of knowing what to do with your pocket of ecosystem is to know what’s in it.

When houses are built, a portion of the land is cleared, construction is completed, and landscaping is installed around the house. If we’re fortunate – or if we deliberately choose a property that wasn’t completed scraped – then a bit of land is left and some of the existing plants remain. It is up to us to recognize and identify them, keep the good ones (sometimes there are invasive plants), and appreciate them for the value they bring to the ecosystem, including the tiniest of things (which might support specialist insects).

Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata) is tiny and easily overlooked

Each fall brings a reminder of this practice when certain plants turn lovely colors, heralding their continued presence: sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) is a medium tree; highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) is a large shrub; and Florida maple (Acer floridanum) is a small tree. All of these plants are native and natural to my area and I can spy them in many of my neighbors’ landscapes too. Yet, as common as they are to my area, these are hard to find for sale and it would not be easy replace them if I hadn’t known to keep them.

One of the Vaccinium corymbosum in my yard naturally

This week I spotted 4 gorgeous highbush blueberries in the wooded area behind me where new houses were recently built, all decked out in beautiful fall foliage. One of them is probably over 30 years old, with a trunk thicker than my wrist. Once their leaves fall, most people would not recognize them for being anything other than a plant that is in the way of plans to remake the woods to human desires.

Also in my neighbors’ yards are invasive plants: privet (Ligustrum, two kinds), prickly Mahonia bealei, burning bush (Euonymus alatus), thorny and autumn olive (Elaeagnus, two kinds), English ivy (Hedera helix), ornamental pear (Pyrus calleryana), Nandina, Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), and stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum). You can imagine being unsure of what to keep and what to remove.

My fear is that people “clean out” their wild areas, inadvertently removing worthy plants and sometimes keeping the invaders. In cleared out areas, the invasive plants are often faster to recolonize, outcompeting any natives that might try to come back.

We have the tools now to help us identify these plants: books, apps, websites, identification groups on Facebook and Reddit, and local Master Gardeners. I written several times about using apps and the internet as well as some basic guidelines. Here are links to two of those posts:

Plant Id using Smartphones and Internet

Let Leaf Arrangement Lead the Way

Natural woodlands can have lots of great plants

Before you throw something good away, please first try to identify your plants. Then you can decide what to keep, what to remove, and know what you already have so you can add more diversity if you want.